From Vegas with Love
by McBreadle
Summary: Sequel to Friends & Foes.part 4 in my DuCaine series.a case in Vegas leads Grissom and Nick to Miami.Horatio & his team work with their visitors to solve the case.meanwhile a stomach bug is going round which seems to be knocking everyone down one by one!
1. Chapter 1

_this story has been rated an 'M' due to the violent crime scene and the state of mind of the killer._

**FVwL Chapter 1**

Horatio and Calleigh stepped out of the elevator to start back at work. They had just had a week off in London for the christening of Chloe-May McBreadle. Alexx was the first to greet them.

"Well hello you two love-birds, how did the christening go?"

Calleigh handed Alexx an envelope with photo's in it, "see for yourself."

Alexx opened the envelope, "aww isn't she adorable. She's got her daddy's eyes that's for sure. She's very small for five months old."

"It's not surprising considering Chloe was six weeks early. Hugh told me that they weren't sure if the christening would go ahead," Horatio put his shades around his neck, "he also told me that Anna wasn't well either. She had to have an emergency caesarian section because her blood pressure was sky high again and it was distressing Chloe."

"Are Anna and Chloe okay now?"

"They're fine now. They're both still under observation just as a precaution but they both seem fine."

"That's good to hear," Alexx looked at the photos again, "Calleigh? How come you're stood with all of the family and Horatio isn't?"

Calleigh smiled, "well, Anna had fallen out with one of the godmothers because of an argument between this godmother and one of the godfathers. So, she asked me to take her place at the last minute. I felt a bit awkward because I haven't known the McBreadle's that long but I couldn't turn her down."

"Well congratulations Calleigh. Right, I'd better get off. I'm off to the uni."

"I didn't know you were back at uni Alexx?" Calleigh teased.

"Well I got a day pass which involves a dead student," Alexx chuckled as she handed back the photos, "excuse me and I'll see you both later."

Horatio and Calleigh were on their way to the staff room when Frank approached them.

"Horatio, Calleigh, great to see you back," Frank turned his attention to Horatio, "I'm afraid you've been thrown straight into the deep end Horatio."

"Why is that Frank?"

"You've got a couple of visitors from Vegas sat in your office waiting to see you. They say it's urgent."

"Thank you Frank. Can you and Calleigh accompany Alexx at the uni please? I'll send Boa Vista over as well."

"Sure thing."

Calleigh and Frank left for the uni.

When Horatio arrived at his office, there was a bearded man sat in a chair and another younger man stood up looking at the certificates on the walls.

"Can I help you both?"

The bearded man stood up and put his hand out to Horatio, "hello, I'm Dr Gil Grissom of Las Vegas crime lab and this is one of my C.S.I's Nick Stokes."  
Horatio shook Grissom's hand and then shook Nick's hand.

"I'm Lieutenant Horatio Caine, what brings you to Miami?"  
Horatio sat down in his chair and Grissom sat in his whilst Nick stood next to his boss.

"I believe you have a couple of unsolved murders which fits the M.O of our victim in Vegas."

"So why come all the way over to Miami to tell me this?" Horatio seemed a bit confused by this. Surely they could have phoned him to let him know.

Nick finally sat down on the chair next to Grissom, "we have reason to believe that our suspect has come back to Miami to stay with his parents to get away from us."

It finally made sense to Horatio why they had travelled all of the way over to Miami for this, "I will get the case boxes out of lock-up for you to have a look at for a start. Do you have a name for your suspect?"

"Jamie Smithers."

Horatio typed the suspects name into his computer. A file came up on the screen. He had quite a rap sheet including burglary, assault and rape. The most recent arrest was the one in Las Vegas a week ago for murder but he was bailed.

Horatio looked at Grissom, "his last known address is in Vegas."

Grissom sat back in his chair, "we know. When our homicide officer went to go find him to see why he'd skipped bail, his flat mate told him that he'd gone to Miami to stay with his parents for a while. So we decided to follow him."

"Do you know his parents names?"

"From what his flat mate told us his mother is Jayne Smithers and his father is Callum Smithers. He didn't have an address for us."

Horatio picked up his phone receiver and pressed a speed dial button, "Eric, its Horatio. Can you do me a favour? See if you can track down a Callum and Jayne Smithers. Thanks, keep me posted." He put down the receiver and turned to Grissom, "we'll soon find out. Have you got the report from your homicide to compare with our cold cases?"

Nick handed Horatio a file and Horatio read it. He recognized the similarities with a couple of his old cases from last year.

"I know exactly which ones you're talking about. I'll take you both to look at the evidence we have."

All three men stood up and left the office.

On the uni campus, Alexx was processing a young girl's body in a public toilet cubicle, "baby girls got a broken neck Calleigh."

Calleigh looked at the young girl slumped in the corner of the cubicle. She noticed the injuries to her eyes, "what could have caused those?" she pointed to her eyes.  
Alexx took a closer look. Her eyelids were a mess; the skin was blistered and seemed to be melted shut. Alexx took out a scalpel to see if she could open them but she got the shock of her life. As she opened it, the eye ball was missing and so was the other one. It was just full of blood.

"She was alive when this happened. The killer must have scorched her eyelids shut. I'll let you know more when I get her back to the lab."

Calleigh was shocked, "that's nasty. Do you have an I.D for her?"

Alexx handed Calleigh the victim's purse, "I found this next to her body. Her name is Rose Camwood. She's only 20 years old and a second year art student here; her dorm key is in there as well."

Natalia walked in to find Calleigh and Alexx in the cubicle.

"That looks brutal."

Calleigh turned to look at Natalia, "oh Natalia, can you go to her dorm room to see if you can find anything?" she handed Natalia the key.

"Sure. Are you going to process in here?"

Calleigh nodded, "as soon as Alexx has finished."

Natalia found the dorm room and started to look through Rose's personal belongings to see if she can find anything. She found a diary belonging to Rose. Frank poked his head round the door, "interesting read Natalia?"

Natalia looked up from the diary, "just her diary. By the looks of it she wrote everything down. Her thoughts and feelings about people she knew, when and where she had to be. She was very organized. Did you find anything out from the principle?"

Frank entered the room, "yeah, this room was supposed to have someone else moving in with our vic tomorrow. She has had three room mates since the first semester. From what I've been told she didn't get along with people very well. She was a very solitary person."

"Do you have any names of the three ex-room mates?"

"Yeah, Jackie Holmes, Sarah Cregg and Bernice Jackson. They all lodged complaints against the vic for her violent temper and they also reported that some of their stuff was stolen. They all accused the vic of the theft but as they couldn't prove it, nothing was done about it."

"I think you've just found our first three suspects, they all have motive to kill her."

"I'll bring them in for questioning."

"Okay Frank, I'll finish processing her room then I'll come back to the lab for the questioning."

"Sure thing." Frank left the room to find these three girls.

Natalia bagged the diary so she could have a closer look at it at the lab. She carried on searching the room and noticed that there was blood spatter on the bottom drawer of the chest of drawers. She got out the luminol and sprayed the whole of the chest of drawers. It looked like that there was smeared blood all over it as though the killer had tried to cover his tracks. She sprayed the rest of the room and found blood all over the computer table next to the drawers and on the carpet. The killer had tried to clear up. Natalia took swabs from the carpet and the furniture then photographed it all.


	2. Chapter 2

**FVwL Chapter 2**

Back at the lab, Horatio was looking through the evidence with Grissom and Nick. The evidence scarily matched the evidence that they had from Vegas. Horatio suddenly heard a familiar voice; a voice he had hoped that he wouldn't hear for a long time yet.

"So much for two lab technicians supervising non lab technicians."  
Horatio turned round.

"Rick, I see that you're back to your normal self."

"Would you have it any other way?"

Horatio tilted his head and smiled, "no I wouldn't. I take it your suspension has finished then?"

"I'm on a supervised probationary period. See that guy stood across the hall?" he gestured towards a man dressed in a dark suit, "he's my supervisor."

"Well, Rick, you'd better be a good boy."

Rick's attention turned to Grissom and Nick, "I thought only lab technicians could touch the evidence in lock-up."

"They are, they're from Vegas."

"Aren't you going to introduce me?"

Horatio looked straight at Stetler, "no, we have work to do so if you don't mind; I suggest you leave us to it."

Stetler looked at Horatio then towards Grissom and Nick, "fine, I'll see you around."

"I look forward to it."

When Stetler left, Horatio went back to the table.

"I take you two don't get on?" pondered Nick.

Horatio lifted his eyebrows, "Nick that is an understatement."

In the morgue, Alexx had just finished her post mortem on Rose. Calleigh walked in.

"Hey Alexx, what have you got for me?"

Alexx looked at Calleigh, "you know that's what Horatio says to me. You two spend too much time together. You're even picking up each others habits."

Calleigh blushed slightly, "sorry I didn't realize."

"Honey, don't be sorry, I think it's really sweet. I'd just be extremely worried if Horatio turned up to work and started talking in a girly Texan accent."

Calleigh laughed, "now that would be funny. Anyway, anything on Rose?"

Alexx went into serious mode, "yes, her eyes. They were effectively melted shut, possibly to stem the bleeding. She was tortured before her neck was broken."

"Have you done a sexual assault kit on her?"

"Yes and I found sperm inside her vagina. She was raped after she died. I sent a sample to D.N.A."

"Thanks Alexx, I'll go to Valera to see if she has the results."

Calleigh was just about to leave when Horatio walked in with Grissom and Nick following him. Calleigh smiled, "morning."

Horatio returned the smile, "good morning ladies. Alexx, Calleigh, this is Dr.  
Gill Grissom and Nick Stokes from the Las Vegas crime lab. Grissom, Nick this is Dr. Alexx Woods and Calleigh Duquesne." Horatio was more inclined to do the introductions this time.

"Alexx, have you got a more detailed report on these cases please?" Horatio handed Alexx a file.

"Sure, I'll just get them for you." Alexx wandered off to get the reports.

Horatio took a closer look at the victim on the table. He gestured Grissom and Nick to come have a look.

"Does that look familiar to you two at all?"

Nick eyes widened, "that looks like Smithers work."

Horatio turned to Calleigh, "do you have any suspects in custody at all?"

"Yeah, three girls who all have motives. Why? Who is Smithers? What's going on?"

Grissom explained about the case that brought him and Nick to Miami, "I think we might be working the same case here."

Alexx got back with the reports, "here you are Horatio." Alexx could sense something was going on, "what's up with you lot?"

Calleigh turned to Alexx, "we've just discovered that we may be working the same case."

Back in the lab Horatio laid out the evidence from the first two original cases, Grissom laid out the Vegas evidence and Calleigh laid out the new evidence.  
Nick started to compare notes, "they all have to same M.O, female, aged nineteen to twenty-three, students, dark brown hair and from the photos we have from the families, they all had either blue or brown eyes. They were all alive but sedated when they had their eyes removed but the last one has been sexually assaulted. The others haven't."

Calleigh had a thought, "what if killing them wasn't enough for him? He might have progressed to sexual assault as well. It does happen."

Grissom agreed, "well, Smithers does have a couple of priors for rape so when we track him down we can ask him. Didn't you say that you have three suspects in custody?"

Calleigh nodded, "Natalia and Frank are about to interview them now."

Valera knocked on the door and walked in, "Calleigh, I have you D.N.A results here." She handed a piece of paper to the chirpy blonde, "thank you."

As Valera left the room, Calleigh turned to the men stood around the table.  
"Well, the results say that the D.N.A belongs to Jamie Smithers."

Horatio took out his mobile phone and dialed a number, "Eric, its Horatio. Have you found the Smithers residence?... Well let's pay them a visit. Meet you at the elevator."

Horatio hung up, "Eric has found them, they live out in the Glades. Calleigh, tell Frank that we're bringing in another suspect. Can you and Natalia see if those girls know Mr. Smithers at all please?"

"Sure," Calleigh smiled sweetly and turned to go see Natalia and Frank.

"Is she always that cheerful?" Nick asked.

Horatio smiled, "yes she is. I'll get Eric and Ryan to come with us. We may need them."

In the interrogation room, Calleigh and Natalia were sat with Jackie, Sarah and Bernice. Calleigh handed them a photo to look at, "do either of you know who this is?"

The three girls looked at each other. Sarah looked at Calleigh and Natalia, "yeah, that's our dorm janitor. We all just know him as Bill. He started yesterday. Why?"

Natalia looked at all three of the girls, "well we just want to ask you all some questions about him, that's all. Have either of you had any problems with him at all?"

Bernice sat forward slightly, "he bumped into Rose last night whilst he was carrying a bucket of dirty water. Someone had thrown up all over their dorm room floor and he'd just finished cleaning up. There's been a nasty sickness bug spreading around campus lately. Rose always had a temper and wasn't impressed with being covered in sick and water. She really laid into him calling him allsorts. He called her a stupid spoilt brat and she hit him across the face with her purse and stormed off into her dorm room."

"Did you see anything else afterwards?"

"No, Bill just seemed very p*ssed off with her and carried on with his work. I didn't see any of them after that."

"What did you do after you'd witnessed this?"

"I went straight to Bernice and Jackie to tell them what I'd just seen. He was the first person to stand up to her like that. Everyone else was scared of her temper."

Jackie looked at the photo again, "is he in some sort of trouble?"

Calleigh took back the photo, "we don't know yet. We will find out soon enough. Thank you girls, you're free to leave. If we need anything else, we'll call."

The three girls stood up and left the room accompanied by an officer.  
Calleigh turned to Natalia, "what do you think?"

"I think he was grooming the uni for his next victim. When Rose hit him with her purse, that must have p*ssed him off. Maybe he decided there and then that she was his next one."

"When Horatio gets back with Smithers then we will find out."

When Horatio and the others arrived at the house in the middle of the Glades, he told Nick, Eric and Ryan to cover the back whilst he went through the front with Frank and Grissom. Nick, Eric and Ryan waited round back with their firearms ready just in case.

Horatio and Grissom followed Frank to the front door. Frank knocked on the door and a man answered.

"Jamie Smithers?" Frank inquired.

"Yeah, who's asking?" Jamie then recognized Grissom pulled a gun to the three men, closed the door then ran towards the back. Horatio and Frank drew their guns and opened the door to chase after him. They heard him go out the back door. Jamie was met by another familiar face, "hey Jamie, remember me?"

Jamie indeed did remember Nick and went to turn and run back indoors only to be met by Horatio and Frank pointing their firearms at him. Grissom had gone round the side of the property to the back, "Smithers, I heard you skipped bail?"

"You know what Grissom; you shouldn't have bothered. Like I told you in Vegas, I didn't do it," Jamie snarled as Frank cuffed him.

Horatio spun him round to talk to him, "we have evidence to suggest otherwise. Frank, get him out of my sight."

Frank took Jamie back to the lab for questioning. Grissom didn't seem impressed with Horatio handling the suspect like that.

"H, do you want us to have a look around?" Eric approached Horatio.

"Yes please Eric. Mr. Wolfe and Nick can stay here to help you. Grissom and I have a suspect to interrogate."

Horatio and Grissom walked back to Horatio's hummer, when they reached the hummer before they stopped and Grissom turned his attention to Horatio, "was that really called for?"

Horatio looked confused, "what's that?"

"Handling the suspect like that."

Horatio wasn't impressed being questioned about his job like this, "Gil, no disrespect to you but I don't appreciate being questioned about my performance. I got his attention and he knows that I'm not messing about. You may already know what this guy is like but I don't. I don't tip toe around people like this so I make sure that they know I mean business."

Horatio climbed into the driver side of the hummer whilst Grissom got in the passenger side feeling a bit annoyed.


	3. Chapter 3

**FVwL Chapter 3**

In the house, Ryan and Nick were in Jamie's room whilst Eric searched the rest of the house.

In Jamie's room, Nick opened a drawer and had the shock of his life. He found four pairs of eyes in clear, water tight boxes staring back at him.

"Ryan, you might want to come see this."

Ryan went over to the open drawer, "wow, that's just creepy."

"Did you find anything?"

"Yeah, he seems to have an obsession with eyes. There are loads of drawings of eyeballs on his desk over there. He must have sketched them after he killed his victims."

Feeling a little bit freaked out, Nick bagged and tagged the boxes of eyeballs.

When the boys arrived back at the lab, Grissom and Horatio were stood outside the interrogation room talking.

"What's going on?" Eric approached the two men.

Grissom took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, "well, Jamie won't talk to us because we're male."

"Calleigh and Boa Vista are on their way over now," Horatio seemed a bit disturbed by this suspect. This worried Eric.

"H? Are you okay? You seem a bit agitated."

"Eric, I'm fine. I'm just worried about sending Calleigh and Boa Vista in there with him."

"What if we all stay around in this area? We can see straight through into the interrogation room so we can get in there if we need to."

"I agree Mr. Wolfe," Horatio noticed a chirpy blonde walking towards him whilst she was talking to bubbly brunette, "ah, here they are."

Calleigh and Natalia looked into the interrogation room. Natalia looked at Horatio, "is this the guy you want us to question?"

"Yes ma'am it is."

Calleigh noticed that the suspect was looking towards her and Natalia with a smirk across his face. Calleigh felt very uncomfortable, "Horatio, this guy gives me the creeps and we haven't even got into the room yet."

Horatio took Calleigh to the side for a moment, "are you sure you want to do this? You don't have to if you don't want to."

Calleigh looked into Horatio's eyes, "I'll be fine, I'm a big girl, I'm sure I can handle this creep," she leant closer to Horatio's ear to whisper to him, "besides, you can make up for it later."

Horatio smiled shyly, "I will most certainly do my best."

They both went and joined the others.  
Grissom looked at the girls, "we will all be around about here to make sure you are okay. If you both feel it's getting too much, just leave but make sure you both leave together."

Calleigh and Natalia acknowledged what Grissom had just said, took a file from Horatio and entered the room.

When they entered the room, Jamie was looking at them with that same smirk on his face that Calleigh had seen him with. They sat opposite him and looked at the file. Jamie leaned towards the girls, "you two have the most beautiful eyes. That's why I wanted women to interrogate me; men's eyes don't do it for me."

Calleigh looked back at Jamie, "you'd better sit back down in that seat and keep your hands where I can see them."

Jamie slowly sat back down in the chair, "I saw the way you looked at that red head. You're eyes tell the whole story."

"Well, we're not here to talk about my eyes. We're here because evidence suggests that you were involved in a string of murders that started here in Miami then go to Las Vegas then back here again."

"What evidence?"

Natalia pulled out a piece of paper from the file, "this says you were involved."

"What's that?"

"It's D.N.A results from the sperm we found inside our latest victim. Guess what? It matches your D.N.A profile. Also we have a witness that says that you got into an altercation with this particular victim before she died."

"Well, what if I told you that we had sex that day?"

Natalia grinned, "here's the thing, Jamie, whoever had sex with her, our evidence says you, did so after she died. Do you know what that is called? Necrophilia. It is illegal so therefore we have you on at least one charge."

Jamie looked shocked, "you can tell that?"

Natalia nodded, "yes we can. Also, what about those eyeballs that our team found in your bedroom? Will their D.N.A match all of your victims?"

Jamie sat and stared at Natalia, "I want my lawyer now."

Natalia grinned, "I bet you do."

Calleigh and Natalia gathered the papers and walked out of the room as Jamie was being led to be booked in.

Calleigh sat down on a seat near the room and Natalia sat next to her and put her arm around her, "are you okay Calleigh?"

"I'm sorry Natalia; he just gave me the creeps."

"Don't worry about it, next time we'll have one of the boys in with us. That will make him feel a bit uneasy."

By this time, everyone else had gathered round. Horatio sat next to Calleigh, "how did it go?"

Natalia piped up, "he's asking for his lawyer so I think he might be on edge at the moment."

Calleigh stood up, "I'm just going to the bathroom. I will see you in a bit." With that, she went to the ladies toilets.

Eric watched Calleigh walk off, "what happened in there Natalia? Calleigh is rattled, that's not like our Cal."

Horatio sat thoughtfully, "just let her be. I'm sure she'll come find us when she's ready. Mr. Wolfe, can you go to D.N.A to see if they have our results please?"  
Ryan left to retrieve the results from D.N.A.

Valera was nowhere to be seen when Ryan arrived at D.N.A just another lab technician.

"Where's Valera?"

The man in the lab looked up, "she's gone home sick. It's that sickness bug that's been going around. A few people in the lab have been down with it. You're Ryan Wolfe right?"

"Yes I am. I've come to see if you have the results from those eyeballs for me, sorry what's your name?"

"Phil. Yes I do have your results. I was told that they were urgent so I did them

straight away." He handed Ryan the piece of paper.

"Thanks Phil," Ryan read the results and went to find Horatio and Grissom.

Back in the lab, Ryan handed the paper to Horatio who read it.

"Just as we thought Gil, they belong to our vics," he handed Grissom the paper, "we need to find the weapon which he used on our victims. I'll send Ryan and Eric back to the house to search for anything that he could have used."

Grissom agreed, "they can take Nick with them."  
Ryan headed towards the door, "I'll go find Eric. He seems to have disappeared."


	4. Chapter 4

**FVwL Chapter 4**

As Ryan left the lab, he took out his phone and dialed Eric's number. He got no answer. He went to reception and asked the receptionist if she'd seen Eric at all.

"Yeah I saw him leaving to go home. Apparently he's not been well, that sick bug that's been going round."

"Valera has gone home with that as well. It's all round the uni campus as well. Let's hope no-one else comes down with it. We're going to be short staffed at this rate. I'll let H know."

He met up with Nick at the elevator, "where's Eric?"

"Gone home. He's got this sickness bug that's going round."

"I hope I don't catch it. Wouldn't want to go home with that kind of souvenir and I don't think Grissom will either."

"Well let's get out of here then."  
They both left for the Glades.

Calleigh eventually found Horatio in his office with Grissom, "did you get the D.N.A results back?"

Horatio looked at Calleigh and explained what has been going on, "this does mean that when Ryan and Nick get back, we'll have to interrogate Smithers again, are you up to it?"

Calleigh seemed very reluctant at this suggestion, "I'm not too sure, he really creeped me out."

Grissom looked towards Calleigh, "in that case, it might be best if Horatio and myself interview Smithers instead."

Calleigh felt somewhat relieved at hearing this, "that's fine. I'm just going to go to my lab, I've got some paperwork to do."

Horatio smiled, "that's fine. I will let you know what happens."

Calleigh left for her lab. Grissom turned to Horatio, "paperwork? We've not finished the investigation."

"She has her annual review to prepare for, when Stetler decides to get himself sorted."

"I thought you would have done the reviews."

"I do but not Calleigh's review. We see each other off the clock."

"Oh right, I didn't realize. It's the same with me and Sarah. I'm not allowed to do Sarah's review either."  
For the first time since arriving in Miami, Grissom started to miss Sarah. He hadn't even had time to think about her, he took out his phone and played with the idea of ringing her. No, he wouldn't, he had to concentrate on the reason for coming to Miami. Sarah will understand him not contacting her whilst he was here. Maybe in the evening he would, so he put his phone away.

"Are you okay Gil?"

Startled, Grissom looked at Horatio, "yes I'm fine thanks."

Horatio started towards the door, "let's go see what Boa Vista has found from the diary."

Natalia was looking through the diary that belonged to Rose. She read the last entry which didn't put their suspect in a good light. It also had in her diary everything that she'd been eating with how many calories she'd eaten and how much exercise she'd with how many calories she'd burnt off. All of her classes and lectures were written in the diary. It was the same for previous entries. Rose seemed to be a control freak.

"What do you have for me?"

Natalia turned round to be met by Horatio and Grissom.  
"Well Rose seemed to control everything she did. She didn't like disruptions in her schedule. She refers to 'Bill' in her last entry as a 'time waster' as she was three minutes late for a lecture which in turn made her late for the rest of the day. She's even written at what times she wrote in her diary. She wrote at least every three to four hours. If something major happened, she'd write it in here. She doesn't miss any details out."

Grissom approached Natalia to take a closer look at the diary, "does she say anything else about our suspect?"

"No but she has written some interesting things about her ex room-mates which suggests she was paranoid."

Horatio raised his eyebrows, "really?"

"Yeah, Bernice was apparently hacking into her computer to steal her ideas for assignments so she stole Bernice's gold ring and hair curlers. Sarah was apparently taking her clothes all of the time without asking then returning them absolutely filthy so Rose took Sarah's favourite pieces make-up and then Jackie, according to Rose, was hitting on some lad that she fancied so she took Jackie's leather jacket. All three girls denied it all when Rose confronted them. It's all very petty stuff really. It explains why Rose didn't get on with people, she was very paranoid."

Natalia handed the diary to Horatio who took a closer at it, "well, at least we know his motive. He got a job at the uni which put him amongst the girls so he could pick his next victim."

Grissom wasn't too sure, "well killing a young girl because she hit him with her purse seems a bit drastic. Surely something else happened between them to kill her."

"People have killed for a lot less, especially here in Miami. Surely you've had cases like that in Vegas where people have killed for something trivial," Horatio pleaded his case.

Natalia jumped to Horatio's defence, "I have to agree with Horatio here. It has been known."

Grissom felt a bit outnumbered and defeated, "there have been cases like that in Vegas but they've not been as vicious as these ones. These cases seem a lot more personal."

"Well it depends on how stable Smithers mind is. If he's mentally disturbed by a past event then the slightest thing might have triggered him off. We will find out when we reinterview him."

Natalia could sense the tension between them, "well, I've got things to be getting on with so I'll just put this away and leave you two to it."

"So when do you intend on interviewing him?" Grissom was still unsure of Horatio's theory and wanted to prepare his own questions to ask the suspect.

Natalia had packed up the evidence and left the room to go see Calleigh.  
Horatio answered Grissom's question, "we need new evidence before we interrogate Smithers so we'll wait until Ryan and Nick come back to see what they have for us."

Natalia arrived at ballistics to find Calleigh sat at her desk reading through some papers. She looked very pale.

"Cal, are you okay? You look very pale."

Calleigh looked wearily at Natalia, "I'll be fine. What's up?"

Natalia sat on the edge of Calleigh's desk, "there's a lot of tension between Horatio and Grissom. Just wandered if you'd noticed."

Calleigh shook her head, "not really. I haven't been around the both of them long enough to notice. Why, what's been going on?"

Natalia explained what had been going on, "they seem to be in competition with each other. I felt awkward being in the middle of it, why do you think I left?"

Calleigh chuckled slightly then suddenly stopped. She clutched her stomach and ran straight to the ladies restroom. Concerned, Natalia went after her and found her curled around the toilet bowl vomiting badly. When Calleigh finished, she went to the sink and turned on the tap to let the water run into her cupped hand. She slurped the water, swilled it around her mouth and spat it back out in the sink.

"Calleigh, you look like death warmed up. You need to go home and rest."

"I can't. Eric and Valera have already gone because of this d*mn bug."

"Well if you stay here, you're at risk of passing it on to the rest of us. Also you could contaminate any evidence. Just go home and rest. If you don't I will call Alexx and you know exactly what she'll say."

Calleigh knew that Natalia was right, she needed to go home before she spreads this bug around. Also, the thought of Alexx doing her mother-hen thing was enough to convince her to take Natalia's advice. She's never taken sick leave before but neither has Eric.

"Fine, I'll go home and rest. Hopefully it's only a twenty-four-hour bug."

"Calleigh, just go. I will tell Horatio."

"Thanks," Calleigh left to go home whilst Natalia went to the staff room for a cup of coffee. She needed it.


	5. Chapter 5

**FVwL Chapter 5**

Ryan and Nick searched the house but with to no avail. The only place they hadn't searched was the garage. They both went out of the back door and headed towards the garage. Ryan tried the garage door, it was locked. Nick walked around the garage building to see if there was another way in. He found a small, half open window round the back.

"Hey Ryan, come here. I think I may have found a way in."

Ryan went round back to where Nick was stood. The window was quite small, there was no way either of them would get in there. Ryan had an idea.

"What if we take out the window frame? Maybe we'll be able to get in and open the garage door."

Between them they managed to remove the window frame, it took time but they managed to do it. The opening was still quite small but enough room for one of them to get through.

"It might be best if you climb through the window Ryan, you're smaller than me," Nick suggested as they both looked at the opening. Ryan looked at Nick.

"Thanks Nick," the sarcasm in Ryan's voice was very obvious, "okay, I'll climb through and you go wait by the door."

Nick went round the front of the garage whilst Ryan climbed through the opening. It was a tight squeeze but he eventually got through. As he climbed down inside the garage, he immediately fell on to some boxes. From outside the door he hear Nick.

"Ryan, are you okay?"

Ryan stood up and brushed himself down, "yeah I'm good." He took out his flash light and turned it on. The garage was full of boxes with 'Jamie' written on them. Ryan opened the garage door to let Nick in.

"Looks like Smithers wasn't planning on coming back to Vegas with us," Nick started to rummage through the boxes and Ryan followed suit.

The computer spat out the print out with the D.N.A results. Phil picked up the paper, read it and handed it to Ryan, "looks like the D.N.A on the cloth, scalpel, spoon and the handle of the kitchen blow torch matches your latest vic. There are some other D.N.A profiles mixed in but they're too degraded to get a match from. All I can tell you is that there are three other donors and all female. The epiphylls found on the blow torch and on the actual belt belong to Jamie Smithers."

Ryan and Nick had recovered the tool belt containing this equipment from the garage. After testing positive for blood, they brought it all to the lab for further analysis.

"There is a chemical compound on the cloth," Phil continued, "that's not my department so you'll have to take it to trace to see what it is," he handed Ryan the results.

"Thanks Phil," Ryan accepted the paper, "we'll go find out what this chemical is."  
With that Ryan and Nick left D.N.A.

In the interrogation room, Frank had just brought Smithers in and sat him down in the chair closely followed by his lawyer. Horatio and Grissom entered into the room and sat opposite Smithers.

"Where the two lovely ladies that interviewed me before? I like those two. They have beautiful eyes."

"They're busy so you'll have to put up with us two," Horatio wasn't about to put up with any cr*p from this low life. Grissom opened the file that he'd brought in with him and showed Smithers a picture of the 'tools' which were recovered from the garage.

"Do you recognize these?"

Smithers smirked, "Grissom, do you really think I'll answer any questions coming from you? Last time you and your buddy, Jim Brass I do believe, asked me questions you accused me of murder."

There was a knock on the door and Ryan entered the room. He handed a piece of paper to Grissom as he was nearest to the door, "thank you Ryan."

Ryan left the room as Grissom read the information that was handed to him, then handed it to Horatio. As he read the trace results from the chemical analysis, he raised his eyebrows and looked over at Smithers, "are you going to tell the story or am I?"

Smithers looked at Horatio with a confident look about him, "what story? There isn't one to tell."

"Fine, I will tell you how it went," Horatio approached the table and looked straight at Smithers then tilted his head slightly, "you came to Miami to get away from the authorities in Las Vegas but didn't have anywhere to stay so you went and stayed with your parents, who have yet to materialize, and got a job at the university under a false name as a janitor. You'd not been there very long before you ticked off Rose Camden. You had just cleaned up a dorm room where a student with a sickness bug had just thrown up. So you had a bucket full of dirty water in your hand but you accidently bumped into Rose and spilt the water all over her. She wasn't impressed with being covered with water and sick that she hit you with her purse. We know this happened as we have a witness. That must have made you so mad. How am I doing so far?"

Smithers just sat there watching Horatio.

Grissom continued, "you knew which dorm she was living in, so you took you bucket back to the closet and picked up your tool belt."

Grissom moved the photographs of the tool belt and the tools towards Smithers, "they're not mine. Anyway, I have nothing to say to you, Grissom."

Horatio was getting impatient with Smithers by this point, "this IS your tool belt as it has your D.N.A all over it. You would have been wearing gloves from cleaning up the vomit so you made sure that your prints weren't on the tools. But you're skin cells were found all over the tool belt and on the blow torch. The tools and tool belt were found in your garage in boxes with your name on. If you don't co-operate, this will look bad on your part in court."

"I don't have to say anything if I don't want to," Smithers folded his arms, sat back and smirked.

"Anyway, you made your way to the dorm room in which you knew that Rose would be in. You entered her room using your master key. You had a cloth ready laced with chloroform and smothered her with it until she fell to the ground. When she was on the ground, you set to work using the spoon to gauge out the eye balls, used the scalpel to cut the optic nerve then used the kitchen blow torch to stem the bleeding from the eye sockets. Then you broke her neck in case she woke up screaming. Then you proceeded to sexually assault her, we know this from the donor you kindly left behind for us to find. You tried to clean up after yourself but you didn't clean up enough. My CSI found blood all over the room."

Smithers lawyer whispered into Smithers ear. He then turned to Horatio, "alright, maybe I did do it. But she made me do it, just like the others."

"The others meaning the first two from here and the one in Vegas," confirmed Horatio.


	6. Chapter 6

**FVwL Chapter 6**

Smithers grinned, "what do you think? All four of them had it coming, they all p*ssed me off big time. The last one hit me across the face with her purse, I didn't like that. If someone hurts me, then I've just got to hurt them back, it's only fair."

Horatio was very uncomfortable with his tone of voice. Grissom had a question of his own to ask, "but why take out the eyes?"

Smithers' tone of voice didn't change, "they saw me. I can't have that. Also, eyeballs are fascinating. I like to draw them. Did you know that an eyeball can be squashed just as easily as a grape? That pretty cool eh?"

Horatio looked at the guard, "get him out of here."  
The guard grabbed Smithers and took him away. His lawyer left the room afterwards.

Grissom stood up feeling satisfied with the outcome, "well, I'll get my D.A to contact yours about transferring him to Vegas."

"Excuse me!" Horatio was shocked.

"Well, he's killed in Vegas as well so I'll need him to be tried over there."

Horatio wasn't in a good mood already but this just made him worse, "Gil, I know he's murdered a young girl in Vegas but he's murdered three over here in Miami. He won't get to see the light of day once he's been tried at court. He stays here, he's done more damage here than over in Vegas. If he gets tried in Vegas, he'll probably get the death penalty and we won't have our day in court with him."

"You wouldn't have known about Smithers if we hadn't have come here."

"My team would have done their jobs and done some investigating and figured it out."

"I will pursue this matter through the right channels. Your D.A will hear from mine."  
With that, Grissom left to find Nick who was sat in the staff room.

"Nick, let's go."

Nick said his goodbyes and followed his boss to the elevator. Horatio stood in the corridor watching as Gil and Nick left the building.

Ryan and Natalia walked out of the staff room and saw Horatio stood there.

"H, are you okay?" Ryan cautiously approached his boss followed by Natalia.

"I'm fine," Horatio turned to look at Ryan and Natalia, "you two might as well take the rest of the day off, it's been a long one. Where's Calleigh?"

Natalia stepped forward, "she's gone home, she's got that bug that's been going round."

"Okay, thank you. I will see you both bright and early in the morning. It's just the three of us so be prepared to work harder than usual."

Ryan and Natalia left to go home. Horatio took out his phone and dialled a number.  
"Hello, it's Horatio. I was wandering if you wanted to meet up for a beer… that's great… usual place, in about two hours? … I just need to go see Calleigh as she's not very well… okay… see you later."

As Horatio hung up, Alexx walked past him.  
"Horatio? How did it go with Dr Grissom?"

"Alexx, you don't want to know. But we got Smithers, eventually."

"Uhm, that's good. I take it that wasn't Grissom you were organizing to out for a beer with then?"

Horatio smiled and tilted his head slightly and looked at Alexx, "no, there is someone else that I'd much rather go for a beer with."

Alexx looked bewildered, "you know I'll find out who it is don't you?"

Horatio chuckled, "yes I do ma'am, just like when you found out about me and Calleigh last year."

Alexx grinned at the memory of this, "that was fun. I think Natalia had fun with that as well."

"I bet she did. Then bringing Ryan into it like you did, poor lad didn't know what to do."

Alexx laughed, "honey, he'll get over it. Anyway, you have fun with your mystery date and pass on my get well wishes to Calleigh."

Horatio chuckled slightly, "if this is a date then Calleigh should be very worried and so would the rest of the team. I'll let Calleigh know you're thinking of her."

Alexx seemed a bit confused so Horatio told her who he was going for a drink with.

"Oh really? You'll have to let me know how you get on."

"Will do ma'am."

Alexx said goodbye and left to go back home to her husband and children.

Horatio went to his hummer in the parking lot, climbed in went straight to Calleigh's apartment.

When he arrived, he let himself in with the set of keys that Calleigh had given him. When he walked in, Calleigh's jacket and purse were dumped on the floor by the door. Horatio picked them up and hung them up on the coat rack. He crept to her bedroom, peeped round the door where he saw her sat up watching the T.V. Horatio walked in and sat next to her on the bed. He stroked Calleigh's hair and tucked it behind her ear.

"How are you feeling, Gorgeous?"

"Not very gorgeous for a start," Calleigh tried to muster up a smile, "can't stop being sick. Not eaten anything. I've spoken to Eric and he's the same. Suze has been running around after him. More the fool her."

Horatio leant over and gently kissed his girlfriend on the forehead, "well Alexx sent her get well wishes to you."

"You know, Natalia threatened to set Alexx on me if I didn't come home."

Horatio smiled, "Alexx isn't a force to be reckoned with is she?"

"Oh God no! So I came home before Natalia had any other bright ideas."

"Well, I'll leave you to get some rest. I will be back later."

"Where are you going?"

Horatio told her what he was doing, "well my sexy Lieutenant, it's about time."

"So you don't mind?"

"That's fine. I'll try to get some sleep while you're gone I'm exhausted."

"I'm not surprised. I'll be back later," he gave a kiss on her forehead, (he decided against a kiss on the lips as he didn't want to come down ill) and left Calleigh's apartment whilst Calleigh settled herself down to sleep.

Horatio walked into the bar and ordered himself a drink.

"So how's Calleigh doing?"

Horatio recognized that voice. He turned round to greet the owner of the voice.


	7. Chapter 7

**FVwL Chapter 7**

"Hey Rick, glad you could make it. Calleigh is doing okay considering she's ill. What are you drinking? My shout."

"Oh I'll have half a pint of beer."

Horatio called out to the barmaid, "can you please make that two half beers please?"

The barmaid acknowledged his request.

"So why have you invited me for a drink? You're not normally one to go for a beer with me."

"Well someone has to," Horatio grinned but Stetler didn't find it very funny, "don't worry, I'm only joking."

The barmaid brought over their drinks and Horatio paid for them. Horatio and Rick went and sat down at a table in the corner.

"Rick, I wanted to talk to you away from the lab as it's sort of to do with the lab but I thought it might be best to talk away from the work somewhere it's more relaxing."

Rick started to get a bit worried, "you're not thinking of resigning are you? If you leave, who else could I have a good slanging match with?"

Horatio smiled, "is that your way of saying that you'd miss me?"

"Oh c'mon, you can't tell me that you don't enjoy our little banters?"

"Well Rick, I have to admit that it is fun but no, I'm not handing in my badge for a long time yet. You can't get rid of me that easily. Something happened today which made me realize that you're not as annoying as I thought."

"Oh? Any reason for this?"

"I worked with Dr Gil Grissom. I know we don't always see eye to eye but it was even worse working with Gil."

"Really? I have heard things about Grissom. He doesn't work well away from his own lab. He's not the sort of person to take a transfer very easily. I know of someone who used to work in his lab. For him to come over to Miami on business it must have been an extreme case. When I saw him in the lab today I knew that things wouldn't go smoothly."

"You already knew who he was? Why did you ask for an introduction?"

"I just popped in for a bit of banter. I just thought I'd use that 'two lab techs' rule to see if I could get your normal reaction from you, and I did."

Horatio was impressed but didn't let on, "well at least some things don't change. What I wanted to say to you is that I think it might be best if we tried to get along at work. I know it's been fun but I think it's best if we tone that down a bit."

Stetler took a sip from his glass then put it down on the table, "well we can certainly give it a try."

Horatio was pleased; this had gone on for far too long, well, since he was put in charge of the lab instead of Stetler. Although, like Stetler, he had enjoyed their so called 'conversations' at work and admitted to himself that he would miss them, but once in a while wouldn't hurt, would it? The two of them proceeded to have a normal, human conversation amongst themselves.

Eric lay on his couch, the T.V blaring out. Suze had brought over her collection of British comedy programs to cheer Eric up. She used to watch these programs when she lived in England for a year. Eric was watching Fawlty Towers. He had to laugh when he first saw John Cleese; he's not used to seeing him looking so young and lanky. Suze came into the front room after having got her pyjamas on. Eric sat up to let Suze sit down then laid his head back down on her lap.

"Thanks for coming Suze, I hate being on my own when I'm feeling ill."

Suze stroked his hair, "just as long as I get to work on time in the morning."

Eric looked up at her, reached up to touch her cheek, "I do love you, you know that don't you?"

Eric surprised himself at this, he never thought he'd ever say those words to a girlfriend but here he was, telling Suze that he loved her. Well, they had been dating for nine months and this was the longest relationship he'd had. Suze was something special.

"I know, and I love you too and it's because I love you that I'm telling you to get some sleep," Suze stroked his hair gently.

Eric smiled broadly, he didn't mean to say what he did but he was glad that Suze didn't go running for the hills. He turned his head towards the T.V to carry on watching Fawlty Towers.

"If you're still awake when this finishes, I have brought my Blackadder DVD's."

Eric turned towards Suze again, "Blackadder? What the hell is that?"

Suze laughed, "it's got Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Laurie in it. You'll enjoy it."

Eric shrugged and turned back over to carry on watching the T.V.

Calleigh woke up with stomach cramps. She shot out of bed and ran to the bathroom. It had been four days and this sickness bug wasn't showing any signs of stopping. Eric and Valera were back at work but she wasn't. She missed her gun range and her ballistics lab. She needed to get back to work but not in this state.  
Horatio popped his head around the corner of the door, "hey gorgeous, how are you doing?"

Calleigh looked up at Horatio, "not too good, I've not eaten for days and I can't stop throwing up."

Horatio came into the bathroom and sat down, curling his body around her. Calleigh laid the back of her head on Horatio's chest as he kissed her on her head, "Calleigh, why don't you get a doctor's appointment? See what he says."

Calleigh nodded in agreement, "I think I'll do that."

They sat on the bathroom floor for a few minutes longer, Horatio still wrapped around Calleigh, "Cal, I'm going to have to go to work now. I'll come back here when I finish work. Is that okay?"

Calleigh nodded, "I would like that."

Horatio stood up and then helped Calleigh to her feet and flushed the toilet. He took her to her bed and made sure she had everything she needed before he left.

When Horatio finished work, we went straight to his hummer and drove straight to Calleigh's. When he arrived, Calleigh, who was dressed in pink jogging bottoms and a white t-shirt with her hair tied back into a pony tail, was sat with a glass of water in her hand and with a worried look on her face. Horatio pulled up a chair next to her, "what's wrong Cal?"

Calleigh took a few deeps breaths.

"Well, I went to see my doctor and I told him about the past few days with my illness. When I told him that my sickness usually disappears by lunchtime and I can eat again, he asked me that, erm…"

Calleigh paused, she didn't know what to say or how to say it, "he asked me if I was on the pill and I said that I was. He then wrote a prescription for metoclopramide to stop the sickness and told me that I should do a pregnancy test to make sure. I did and…"

Calleigh took out a pregnancy test stick from her pocket to show Horatio. He took it off her to have a look, "y…y…your p…pregnant?" Horatio could hardly believe it,

Calleigh was pregnant. Calleigh looked at Horatio waiting for a reaction, "Horatio?"

He looked up at Calleigh, she looked nervous.

"Come here," Horatio pulled her over to him to sit her on his knee, "don't look so worried. To be honest, I'm looking forward to being a dad especially if the child has a mom like you."

Calleigh's face lit up with a huge smile and gave Horatio a hug and gave him a kiss.  
"I wasn't sure how you'd take it. At least we know it's not that stomach bug."

Two weeks later, Calleigh and Horatio were in the waiting room at the hospital. They'd been waiting for today to arrive so they could have a scan to see how far on Calleigh was in her pregnancy.

One of the midwives opened a door, "Duque… Duque…"

Calleigh stood up, "Duquesne?"

The midwife squinted at the paper, "oh that's how you pronounce it. Come in and we'll get you sorted."

Calleigh and Horatio sat down opposite the midwife, "hiya, I'm Bernadette but everyone calls me Bernie. Calleigh, I hope you've drunk plenty of water so that I can get a good look at the baby?"

Calleigh giggled slightly, "sure thing, Horatio won't even let me go to the toilet."

"Well, let's get you sorted so that you can go relieve yourself."

Calleigh got onto the bed next to the ultrasound, Horatio sat next to her.  
Bernie was about to explain what the machine was when Horatio politely interrupted, "ma'am, we're both C.S.I's and have used and ultrasound machine before."

"Oh okay then. Let's get on with it."

Bernie put some gel on Calleigh's tummy which felt rather cold. As she did the ultrasound, she looked closer towards the screen; she took some measurements and turned to Calleigh and Horatio, "two things I have to tell you. First, you are about 8 weeks gone."

Horatio and Calleigh grinned liked Cheshire Cats at each other.

"The second thing I have to tell you will be a bit of a shock so I hope you're ready for this, you are having twins."

Horatio nearly fell off his seat, "twins?"

Bernie nodded, "yes, here is one heart beat," she showed Calleigh and Horatio a heart beat on the screen, "and here's the other one," and she pointed to the other heart beat.

Both still in shock, but none the less happy, they climbed into Horatio's hummer and sat for a few seconds.

"Twins?" Horatio repeated, still in shock. He put his hand on Calleigh's, "are you okay?"

Calleigh looked at Horatio, "yeah, I'm still in shock. I just hope we're going to cope."

Horatio stroked her hand, "we'll be fine."

"Everyone at the lab will be shocked, especially as they don't know we're expecting."

Horatio chuckled, "they will be fine, we'll just sit them down before we tell them. We'd better go and see if the removal men have moved your stuff into my place yet. Then we can have dinner to go to."

Calleigh smiled sweetly and looked at Horatio, "oh yeah. Oh and happy first anniversary sexy."

"Happy first anniversary gorgeous."

The End


End file.
